Participant Perspectives

Looking back over the past few weeks/months, how do you think training helped you in sobriety?

• Has given me time to concentrate without the thought of drinking. Helps with my relaxing techniques.  Stress reliever.

• It has helped me a lot.  Physical exercise has been a huge part of my mental health and being able to get out of the house on Sundays to exercise has helped my sobriety a lot.

• It helps by getting in the habit of exercising and feeling good about myself. Each time I went out training I feel good after and also I always look forward to going each Sunday.  Now I run with our dog twice a day and it is a breeze cause of the training I’m doing now.  It really changed my perception of how I can do anything I put my mind to.

• Training has helped me build myself back up and get myself motivated again.

• It helped me to try new things and I actually started to work out a lot due to training.  It got me to want to get healthy.

• Training was a reminder to me that life is too beautiful to waste away.

• Training for this run has given me a bond with my fellow brothers in the house that I’ve never had before.  And I’m grateful for it.

• It makes me feel good about myself.

• Training helped me focus on something other than my addiction.

• Very therapeutic for me. My mind was taken to a different level such as thinking more positive of what the future has in hands for me. Took me to a place of no negativity.

 

Training taught me:

• Self-discipline, determination, how to endure or do something that I am not used to doing.

• To push myself even when I don’t think I can, that I can do a lot more than what I think I can do which is huge in sobriety.

• Anything is possible that I put my mind to.  I know that I can, it’s no longer I can’t do it.

• How to be part of a team and to encourage others to train also.  I learned to rely on my team to get through it.

• That I can have fun with my brothers while doing physical exercise.

• That I can do things in recovery that I used to do before I started using.  It also taught me that I can push myself past where my body wants me to get.

• Willingness, strength, and power, and drive.

• Discipline and that by accomplishing goals, I will feel better about myself.

• Patience

• With hope and determination, we can do it. 

• Not to give up. When I’m feeling anxiety, “Walk it out!”

• Stress relief techniques. Good breathing habits.  How to enjoy the scenery around me.

 

What it means to me to be part of this team:

• Sense of worth, belonging.  Special group of people who have the same disease in common but able to work as a team to accomplish something.

• It means a lot.  My brothers in the house mean everything to me so being a part of this team has been a great experience.  We have gone through this together, so it’s been really cool.

• For me personally I think it makes me feel a part of something bigger.  Also, I get to do this walk for my sister, who passed away, and tell others about her story.

• It is cool to be a part of a group of guys that want to do better for their physical lives.

• A part of a new beginning with my sober sisters.

• It means a lot to me. The longer I stay sober, the more I feel a part of all the things we do together as a group in this program.  I have a large support system and I didn’t have anything like this before I got here.

• Being part of a team means everything.  We win together and we cry together.  It is a reminder that we never have to be alone.

• It means a lot to me because I know I can be the inspiration someone else might need to save their life.  My life is just beginning here and now.

• I am excited to support my sober sisters and cross a very literal finish line together.  This team is symbolic of our recovery and strength together.

• It makes me feel like home and I have a family again.